How was the Declaration of Independence organized?

 

The second continental congress was already in session in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. The time had come to formally separate from Great Britain. On June 11, 1776, a committee of five men were chosen to draft the ultimate breakup letter: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Thomas Jefferson, and Robert Livingston. Thomas Jefferson was the leader of the committee and was the main author of the declaration of independence. He organized the document into different parts: the preamble, the declaration of natural rights, the list of grievances and the resolution of independence.

The Preamble was
the introduction to the document that says: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”, so, it is like when you (13 colonies) tell your partner (Great Britain) that you want to break up with them and then you tell them the reasons for the breakup.

The next section is referred to as the declaration of natural rights. This section explains that every citizen is born with certain rights that should never be taken away: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”, it goes on to state that the power of government comes from the people and if the government abuses the rights of the people, they have a right to: “… throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”. By this point in the document, it was already clear to Great Britain why America was separating from them, if not, the next section of the document would make it clearer in which there were the list of grievances that the colonists had against king George III. Some of their complaints were the following:

• He has refused to enforce laws.
• He has forbidden certain laws from being passed.
• He has made it hard for colonists to fully participate in government.
• He has limited American expansion into new territories.
• He has forbidden the passage of laws that would establish judicial powers in the colonies.
• He has forced colonists to house British troops.
• He has allowed troops to go unpunished for their crimes.
• He has cut off trade to the colonies.
• He taxed colonists unfairly.
• He has refused to protect the colonists from attacks.

In the final section of the declaration of independence the colonists “… solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.”, and on July 4^th, 1776, the declaration of independence was officially adopted by the second continental congress and a new nation was born.